Transportation

Michael Clayton Ernest and Keith Lawson were both arrested in
Tuscaloosa County. Authorities said the two men were charged with possession of an explosive device and conspiracy.The Walker County Sheriff’s office said Tuesday it had made two
arrests in what it’s calling a murder-for-hire plot that ended with a
man injured in a truck bombing.

If you own a Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge vehicle or plan on purchasing one, you need to know about the fact that these vehicles do not have any product defect liability coverage because of some shenanigans that took place in their chapter 11 bankruptcy. Vehicle resale values may plummet if Congress approves of warning labels on these vehicles. General Motors turned their back on their customers in chapter 11 forcing those with liability claims to fight with unsecured creditors over worthless assets.

Public opposition to the auto bailouts may translating into consumer
buying decisions, with 46% of Americans now saying they are more likely
to buy a car from Ford because it did not take government money to stay in business.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone
survey finds that 13% say they are less likely to buy a Ford because
the company didn’t receive a bailout, and 37% say it has no impact on
their car buying.

State driver's license stations all closed Monday, halting the
issuance of any driver's licenses or identification cards and
postponing the launch of a new, more secure system of issuing licenses
until at least Wednesday. The
new system, designed to foil identity thieves and meet security
challenges of the post-9/11 world, will cost the state $2.9 million in
lease and setup costs this fiscal year.
[we'll update you as the traffic fatalities mount]

This billion dollar legislation passed so that we could help our environment. Needless to say, our study determined the ones who truly win. A MUST READ for consumers wanting to take advantage of this program

Perhaps propelled by the recent dawn of solar powered airplanes, this stunning solar powered blimp is poised to take flight by harnessing sunlight for fuel. Dubbed Nephelios,
the solar-powered helium blimp was designed and built by high school
engineering students in France. The history making blimp will begin
test flights in the next 2 weeks, and by summer’s end the designers
hope to fly Nephelios across the English Channel, “just to show that
it’s possible.” Nephelios
will be the first manned solar airship in existence, and its inaugural
flight will prove that CO2-free air travel is now a reality.

Red light cameras have a new target. They can now do more than just catch speeders. They can also check to see if you have insurance.
There's a program that uses the red-light cameras and insurance company databases to check for uninsured motorists.
Here's how it works. The system would use license plate numbers to verify driver insurance. Ohio and Illinois are considering using the system. Officials in Chicago say the program could generate $200 million in additional revenue for the windy city.

The year is 2020 and the gasoline tax is history. In its place you get
a monthly tax bill based on each mile you drove — tracked by a Global
Positioning System device in your car and uploaded to a billing center.

A federal bankruptcy judge denied a request by a group of
dissident General Motors bondholders for special status in the case,
which would have required the automaker to pay their legal expenses as
they contest the company's proposed restructuring.

Earlier this month, the House of Representatives voted 310-118
to keep the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) from
strip-searching passengers with millimeter-wave scanners at airport
checkpoints.
Screeners will grope us instead.

Millimeter-waves function like Superman’s X-ray vision, peering through
your clothing to the body beneath. You don’t undress; the scanner does
that for you. Meanwhile, screeners leering at the monitor and
ostensibly checking for weapons can check you out instead.

Prisons have used millimeter-wave and similar technologies for years.
No wonder the TSA, which frequently confuses passengers with prisoners,
has tried since its beginnings in 2002 to push us into these
pornographic scanners. But public outrage always stymied those efforts;
there’s something unutterably creepy about government agents inspecting
naked citizens. Michael Chertoff, then Secretary of the Department of
Homeland Security, finally growl

The Senate approved a $1 billion program yesterday to give vouchers to
consumers who trade in their gas-guzzling clunkers for more
fuel-efficient models -- a move that dealers hope will revive slumping
auto sales.

How dangerous is speeding? It all depends on your perspective. There's only about 1 traffic fatality caused by exceeding the posted limit per BILLION vehicle miles traveled. Speed cameras - safety? really?

A federal appeals court agreed late Tuesday night to hear an appeal from a group of lenders seeking to block the sale of Chrysler's assets, a move that could delay the automaker's exit from bankruptcy proceedings.

It is not every 31-year-old who, in a first government job, finds himself dismantling General Motors and rewriting the rules of American capitalism. Brian Deese, a not-quite graduate of Yale Law School who had never set foot in an automotive assembly plant until he took on his nearly unseen role in remaking the American automotive industry.

A federal judge on Sunday night cleared a path for Chrysler to exit bankruptcy by approving a sale of most of the carmaker’s assets to a new entity to be run by Fiat of Italy. Judge Arthur J. Gonzalez of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved the government-backed plan after three days of marathon hearings on the proposal.

WOW! This is one strong warranty. Who's going to cover it if they go out of business? [Ed] We're confident in our vehicles. And we want you to have that same level of confidence. That's why Dodge is the only automaker in the U.S. with a Lifetime Powertrain Limited Warranty with unlimited mileage[1] [2]. This exclusive warranty covers the cost of parts and labor needed to repair the engine, transmission and/or drive system for the lifetime of your vehicle.
Plus, our 3-year/36,00

The United Auto Workers ratified contract changes today that will help General Motors cut costs and restructure the struggling automaker. The Union said 74% of GM's production and skilled-trade workers voted in favor of the deal.

The Texas House is poised to vote to sell our PUBLIC highways to PRIVATE, foreign corporations in sweetheart deals that will charge the traveling public 75 cents a mile to use our PUBLIC roadways. That’s more than $3,000 a year PER COMMUTER on averag

The U.S. Coast Guard will require U.S.-flagged ships sailing around the Horn of Africa to post guards and ship owners to submit anti-piracy security plans for approval, a Coast Guard official said. [Blackwater to the rescue.]

General Motors Corp is open to considering moving its headquarters from Detroit, selling U.S. plants and renegotiating its restructuring plan with its major union as it heads toward probable bankruptcy, the automaker's chief executive said.

The Treasury Department is racing to engineer the sale of Chrysler's financing arm in a move the administration deems vital to saving the troubled automaker, but other federal agencies have not given their support, sources familiar with the matte

The state Transportation Department is getting ready to spend $1.5 million [federal stimulus] replacing metric signs along Interstate 19 with mileage signs. "We continually get complaints from motorists throughout the year."

A new report by Greg Mauz of the National Motorists Association focuses on the fraudulent camera scheme in Arizona. The result? Cameras are NOT saving lives in Arizona. They are responsible for over 28 extra fatalities!

Except this junker was a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. The real thing. The single-engine Mach 2.2 interceptor that ruled the skies in the 1950s and 1960s. “In a post-9/11 world we probably wouldn’t have been able to get one,” Mr. Shadle acknowledged. B

The Obama administration is expected to unveil its plans on Thursday for accelerating development of high-speed rail, a concept that in the past has had mixed political support and little public funding.